It is late July and about time to start raining caterpillars. This weekend, we took a country drive on the rural roads around Greensboro and stumbled upon this silk tent full of caterpillars. The host tree, which was infested with a series of small tents, appears to be a persimmon. Caterpillars have fascinating behavior for example, they change location in the tent depending on the temperature; they cannot digest food if the temperature is less than 59 degrees Farenheit; they excrete so much waste that it sounds like it is raining; and, they leave scent trails to indicate a food source has been found.*
Regardless of their interesting behavior, seeing caterpillars in one of at least a dozen tents on a country tree makes us just want to scream, "help us rid this tree of the infestation of caterpillars." But then, with nobody else around, our back up plan was to pull off the road and start observing their behavior, and commence to taking photos. Happy Monday. What did you do this weekend? (Surely not photograph tent caterpillars)!
Hates a strong word, but I HATE them with a passion! Disgusting, little crawly things.
Posted by: Birdman | Monday, July 28, 2014 at 09:03 AM
I've seen them in trees here. Well, the good thing about caterpillers is they become butterflies.
Posted by: William Kendall | Monday, July 28, 2014 at 07:00 PM
@William.... they become butterflies, or MOTHS!!!!
Posted by: Janis & David | Monday, July 28, 2014 at 08:44 PM
Wonder what it is about persimmon trees that makes them the tree of choice for tent caterpillars?
Posted by: Bigi | Thursday, July 31, 2014 at 10:17 AM